One of Savannah’s most prominent businessmen and crime-prevention advocates got his first job at Bacon Park when he was a child living in Fairway Oaks. By the time he was made a cart boy at 11 years old, he had been a caddie, a scavenger for golf balls in the ponds and underbrush on the course and a de facto assistant greenskeeper.

And that’s why Welch is interested in submitting a bid to become Bacon Park’s new management lease holder. You don’t get where Welch has gotten by ignoring the bottom line, and the 57-year-old is pretty certain the golf course won’t ever generate much of a profit.

He probably knows the hazards of operating the golf course more intimately than anyone save current manager and head professional Bob Elmore. Despite a clear vision of Bacon Park’s condition and limited ceiling, Welch has been working with a group of other local businesspeople to make an investment from the heart.

“There ain’t nothing I don’t know about that place,” Welch said. “The place ain’t been right in a long time, and it seems like it’s been in decline mode for 35 years. It hasn’t been marketed properly or maintained properly, and it’s been nothing but neglected.

“If they’re just going to keep doing what they’ve been doing, we’ll just have what we have now and we might as well shut it down.”

Like many other people, Welch believes Bacon Park should be returned to an 18-hole facility. Even then, he feels like an investment of $4-5 million would be needed to give the facility a chance to compete with other area courses that allow public play. But for that to happen, Welch said the City of Savannah may need to adjust the terms of its lease to be longer than four years with options in order to give investors proper time to recoup their money.

Bacon Park is owned by the City of Savannah and signs lease agreements with management companies, and the golf course is intended to be a self-sustaining entity that does not regularly receive subsidies from the city.

Joe Shearhouse, the bureau chief for the city’s Public Facilities, Events and Services Bureau, said he expects to publish the request for proposal some time in June and would ideally like to have a new management team selected by Sept. 1 in order to provide four full months to prepare for the transition to new ownership.

Shearhouse said the terms of the deal will remain consistent with previous management contracts for Bacon Park: four years initially with an automatic option to renew for another four years and other renewal options at eight years and 12 years.

Shearhouse said he’s heard from at least three local groups as well as groups from Atlanta, the South Carolina Lowcountry and North Carolina.

“The reason we’re doing it this way is we’ll be asking the operator to put in a considerable amount of money, and we can’t ask that and then expect the new operator to have to compete for the lease every four years,” Shearhouse said. “I think local would be my preference, but in this case, we cannot legally give extra points during the bid process for local. If someone from Atlanta puts in a better bid, we have to take the better bid.”

Welch remembers the way the golf course once was and would work to restore the original Donald Ross design as much as possible given the limitations imposed by redesigns done over the years that have distorted the course’s original shape. He would also reintroduce a youth caddie program and halfway houses around the course that would sell drinks and snacks to golfers during rounds.

Taking the best bid may be what the city has to do because of dollars and cents, but it certainly seems to make more sense to find a way to accept a local bid from people in the community who will treat Bacon Park like a cherished piece of Savannah’s history. Any financial advisor will tell you that a golf course isn’t a grade A investment, and the quickest path to the graveyard for Bacon Park would be a revolving door of owners who surrender after losing money for four years.

“Somebody who really cares about the place needs to clean it up,” Welch said. “You’ve got to redo the whole thing anyway, so why not put the holes and greens back where they’re supposed to be? There’s so much I could do to promote it, and I know I would get people to play golf there.

“You may not make any money, but you will make friends and that ain’t so bad.”

Moms play free today at Savannah Harbor

Mothers accompanied by spouse or juniors can play for free at The Club at Savannah Harbor today.

For more information or to book tee times, go to theclubatsavannahharbor.com or call 912-201-2240.

Humane Society benefit is June 22

Putt Putt for Paws to benefit the Humane Society for Greater Savannah and sponsored by The Club at Savannah Harbor will take place June 22 from 1-6 p.m. at participating restaurants.

Cost is $80 for a foursome or $25 for individual entries, and each participant will receive a free Tervis tumbler, golf ball and drink specials. Putting will take place at each location, including Wild Wing Café, Treehouse, Flip Flop Tiki Bar & Grill, JJ’s Sportsbar, Murphy’s Law, Taco Abajo, Molly McPherson’s Scottish Pub, B&D Burgers and Congress Street Social Club.

Richard Dotson, 82, aced the 80-yard seventh hole with a pitching wedge on Magnolia course at Bacon Park Golf Club on May 3 playing in the Savannah Senior Blitz.

Linden Accurso made his first hole in one with a 7-iron on the 109-yard fourth hole at Henderson Golf Club on May 8. He was playing with Joe Hobby, Bob McKenzie and Bob Plank.

Elmo Weeks is a golf junkie and regular contributor to the Savannah Morning News. Send your golf news, notes or anecdotes to him at elmoweeks@gmail.com or call him at 912-596-6016 to swap golf stories.

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